Rethink
by Yamon
Summary: Due to a few irregularities during his life, Voldemort is given a second chance. It's just not like he would have imagined it. Time Travel
1. Prolog

**Rethink**

**1. Prologue**

He floated.

Or no, floating felt different. He could do that on his own, after all and it was far more exhausting. No, he floated, but there was no gravitation. He looked himself over. Maybe there was gravitation, but he was not affected by it. His body was... incorporeal in a very bizarre way.

Then he realized something else: He was not alone. Curious and strangely detached he looked around. There was nothing. Literally. The vague thought that that should be quite disconcerting, crossed his mind, but he did not dwell on it. Somehow, he knew it was irrelevant.

The feeling of company grew stronger. This time he could actually see something, or, more precisely, seven things. They looked a lot like glowing orbs. Genuinely curious he reached out and touched one of them. It glowed even brighter and... it stuck. With a little frown he shook his hand, but the stubborn little ball was glued to him. Even more, it seemed to sink into him. The feeling was ways less disturbing than it should be. In fact it felt... good. Really good. Like a missing part finally returning to his rightful spot.  
>The other orbs, seemingly encouraged, came closer and attached themselves to his not-body. He looked in wonder, as they sank into him.<p>

Suddenly, he felt a pull. He tried to balance himself, but in vain. At least the impact with the ground was not painful, which was perhaps down to the fact, that there was no ground. There was, still, nothing. Not caring about oddities a part of him insisted were _not_ normal at all, he stood. His body was more substantial now. Something tickled his neck. He reached up, startled. Black and grey streaks of hair. That was okay. It was normal to have hair, wasn't it? Why did it feel so significant, then? He had the distinct, but very sure feeling that he was human, after all.

Troubled, he sat down, still pulling absently on his hair. He missed something. Something important.

"You miss your memories."

He blinked.  
>"Right. I don't... remember..." he trailed off with a frown.<p>

"Do you want to remember?"

Well, why wouldn't he? Memories were important, weren't they?  
>"Yes, I guess."<p>

"Very well", said the voice. He was just coming to the conclusion that it was kind of weird to sit in nothing and speak with an incorporeal voice, as a wave of pain hit him. Crying out he clutched his head and doubled over, convulsing on the non-ground.  
>He did not know how long it lasted, but it felt like an eternity. When he finally pulled himself together, the voice sounded amused.<p>

"So you remember Tom Riddle."

"Yes, I do", Voldemort said hoarsely. He wanted to say more, but was too overwhelmed. Orphanage, Dumbledore, Hogwarts, basilisk, his first horcrux, his new name, allies, studies, travels, more horcruxes, Hogwarts again, war preparations, speeches, the dark mark, and bodies, so many, many bodies. Then the prophesy, hunt, traitor, the Potters, his death. His attempts to come back, his resurrection, death, death, death, in the end his own.

"I'm dead", he stated, feeling indifferent.

"Yes."

The former dark lord was quiet for a long time. Maybe it had been just a few seconds, who knew? At the last he asked quietly.  
>"...Am I going to hell now?"<p>

"Maybe."

"Maybe?" He had never been a religious human, but as far as he knew, afterlife consisted in two choices, the way up and the way down.

"Maybe", the voice confirmed, "You see, you're a special case."

I am? Tom wondered silently.

"Yes, you are. Normally a being has a birth and a death. You on the other hand, have one birth but two deaths."

"I see your point with the two deaths, but haven't I been reborn three years ago?", Voldemort asked confused. He didn't even care about his usual attitude. Hell, he'd just been bested by a seventeen year old kid. Besides, he did not feel like acting up, since he had touched the glowing orbs. A thought stuck him: His horcruxes, of course. He had felt so ripped apart... even if he was going to hell, at least he was whole again.

"You are not going to hell. Not yet, anyway. Haven't you listened?", the voice admonished, "your ritual doesn't count as birth. You see, the requirements to fulfil death are much easier than birth", the voice explained. Then she, the voice, sighed and muttered."It has gotten really troublesome lately with the muggels and their defibrillators."

"Ah", Voldemort said unintelligently "And now?"

"Well", the voice trailed of, "Ah, yes. See, usually I just scratch out the death date and send them back. Unfortunately, your questionable death happened sixteen years ago. Because of your horcruxes you could not come here, though." At this point, Voldemort felt distinctly uncomfortable and squirmed a little."So, you see my problem."

He supposed he could. He just could do nothing about it.  
>"So, I've been officially dead for sixteen years and had the galls to just die again."<p>

"Yes."

"Hm."

"Exactly. I was looking forward to a free afternoon today, you know?"

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you should be", the voice grumbled, "Anyway. The only date I can scratch out, is your second death date. Now, for a lot of complicated reasons, the most prominent of me not being willed to spend the next eternity filling out paperwork because of you, I can't simply do that and ignore that you've been, in fact, alive for the last sixteen years. So you have to live after your first death. Unfortunately you had no body back then." Again, Voldemort felt the urge to shuffle his feet ashamed.  
>"So I have to give you second, <em>proper<em> birth. When you die after that, it will be alright, as long as you don't mess with your soul again."

"I won't!" Voldemort exclaimed, before he could stop himself.

"You better! So, this is not exactly an easy thing to do. You know, usually I'd just stuff your soul into a newborn. But since all of that is technically the past, all available bodies already have souls allocated. So... you'll get a whole, new body."

"Will I have my complete soul?" Voldemort asked nervously. He did not want to loose the nice, whole feeling.

"Of course! I don't want to deal with this mess again in case you die before all the other parts of your soul have." The voice sounded quite testy.

"Ok..." slowly the meaning of all this sunk in. He would get a second chance. A new body. A new life! He could continue his work!

"There is one problem, though."

Damn! Figures it couldn't be that easy.

"Due the circumstances of your death, you initially lost a part of your soul. Now, when I send you back, the piece, which is the closest one to you, is in the body of a fifteen months old, so..."

Dread. Pure dread filled the former dark lord.  
>"I'll be fifteen months old. Oh no! You cannot do that! It's... it's inhuman, that it is!", he whined. Damn, Voldemort did not whine! Not even when he spoke to incorporeal, godlike voices, which let him feel like a naughty five-year old!<p>

"Get used to it. After all it is suspected from a toddler to whine. Watching you will be the compensation for my troubles," the voice said with a positively sadistic streak in it. Voldemort just hung his head.

"Now, be reborn, Tom Marvolo Riddle, at the 31th of October in 1981!"

Oddly enough, the last thought of Lord Voldemort was, that he would share his birthday with the boy who lived.

* * *

><p>AN: The story will be more or less in drabble style, so the chapter length will vary.<br>I'm not a native English speaker, so I apologize for eventual mistakes. Feel free to call it to my attention, if I should make a mistake repeatedly or an expression is not fitting.

Have fun with the story!


	2. Brothers in circumstances

**2. Brothers in circumstances**

The pages of the simple, leather bound book, hidden in a secret chamber under the dining room of Malfoy Mansion, rustled.

Deep down in the vaults of Gringotts, a cup glistened from an unearthly light.

In a shelf of a cupboard in a deserted house in London, a locket opened with a creak.

Between many pieces of lost rubbish and treasure, a beautiful diadem hovered for a moment, then fell back with a soft tinkle.

A snake, that slithered through the understorey of a thick forest, raised his head in wonder and sneezed. It would be the only snake to ever have sneezed.

In a shack a ring turned a few times, before it lay still.

A fifteen month old toddler opened his eyes, sight blurred from tears and blood, which ran down from the lightning shaped scar on his forehead, as he felt something twisting inside of him. A white, softly glowing light erupted from the open skin and slowly took a form. He watched in wonder as step by step other lights floated through the shuttered window and merged with the first. Each one made the form more corporal. Finally, the last one melted under the skin and the glow faded. Next to little Harry lay a boy, not older than himself, with black hair and pale skin. He was sleeping.  
>Too exhausted to care and not really caring anyway, since he was fifteen months old and took strange things without questioning them, Harry cuddled closed to the other kid, happy not to be alone any longer.<p>

Sobs awakened the small boys. They opened their eyes simultaneously, bright emerald green meeting dark, nearly black ones.

Tom stared. And stared. And stared some more. He lay face to face with his most deadly enemy. Who had killed him not even an hour ago. Who had killed him a second time sixteen years from now. Who was currently fifteen months old and covered in tears, snot and blood and clung to him like his life was depending on it.  
>The not-quite-toddler blinked. Harry mirrored him. They starred some more.<br>There were still sobs in the background, though both of them were silent. _Someone else is here. _The thought pulled Tom out of his trance. He tried to look around, but that turned out to be quite difficult, since Harry clutched him even tighter as soon as he started to move, which made him aware that he was as naked as the day he had been born. Which had happened about an hour ago.  
>Damn. He was already getting a headache.<p>

Tom heard a sniffle and looked at the other baby, who was smearing – no, he would not think about that! – who was hiding his face against his shoulder, which was not easy, since he was stuck in the body of a bloody fifteen-month old! Literally bloody, now.  
>He struggled to disentangle himself, but the toddler proved himself to be strong for his age. Great, now he lost even to baby Potter! His efforts distressed the boy and he started to cry. Usually he would kill such crybaby or at least tell him to get his act together. On the other hand had he just killed the child's parents and shouting at him felt a little too mean, even for his standards. Stupid whole soul and undamaged consciousness!<br>Awkwardly he patted the other boys head, who, to his astonishment, reduced his crying to sniffles.

Great! He made a mental note to kick the disembodied voice, should he ever meet it again.

He heard shuffling and then hurried steps. Someone was coming. He tried to remember who had found Potter that day, but he'd been a sorry excuse of a spirit at that time. Hopefully it wasn't Dumbledore, though, or he could kick the voice sooner than he preferred.  
>"No, Lily! Not you, too!", a man cried out in anguish. It wasn't Dumbledore, at least.<p>

"Please, please..." the man came nearer. Tom decided to follow his fellow toddler suit and scrunched his little face up, as if he was in pain and cuddled closed to his arch-enemy. In reality, he felt perfectly fine, aside from the building headache.  
>A shadow fell over the crib and Tom held his breath, as a large hand touched the boy next to him. Little Harry squeezed him tighter and whimpered. Tom whimpered, too, since his ribcage was getting seriously damaged.<p>

"You are alive. Thank Merlin!", the man whispered. By now, Tom was fairly sure he was Sirius Black, Potter's godfather. Said man tried the same as he had a few minuted ago, to disentangle his godson from the foreign child, but the children would not let go of each other.  
>Harry, because he was still in shock and Tom, because he had realized that the other child was his life-insurance at the moment.<p>

Sirius ended up giving both children to Hagrid before he went to take revenge on Pettigrew. The half giant did not mind much. He was happy enough that Harry was alive and the dark lord was dead, unaware that he had said dark lord as a reborn toddler in the side car of the motorcycle.  
>Tom was tired. He figured it was the fate of a baby to be sleep a lot, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Harry was sleeping exhausted, too. The little child tried to stay awake, but the steady hum of the motor lulled him into sleep.<p>

Dumbledore was a very happy man. Within one fateful night the war had been ended, by a child no less. Of course, Voldemort was not gone forever. But now the headmaster knew that the prophesy was true and should he ever come back, Harry would be able to kill him with a bit help. At the moment the old wizard stood in the middle of a muggle neighbourhood, to set the first stage of his plan into motion. Harry had to be safe, not only from the death eaters, but also from the allure of fame. There was no better way than giving him a sibling and raising him the muggle way, even if said muggles were not after his deputy headmistress' liking.

"Where is Hagrid?", Minerva McGonagall asked. She had been in a unpleasant mood al day, not at all agreeing with his choice of guardians for young Harry. Dumbledore just pointed skywards, exactly as a thundering noise roared over Surrey. Oddly, nobody seemed to hear it, aside from the two magicians.  
>A huge motorcycle landed right next to them and a imposing figure carefully lifted a bundle out of the side-car. Dumbledore smiled and opened his arms to welcome the child, but then frowned. The bundle was ways to big for a little boy. He approached the half-giant and glanced into the wrapped blankets.<p>

"What is the meaning of this, Hagrid?", Dumbledore asked in astonishment, as he saw a second toddler with a startling similarity to Harry, laying snuggled to the other boy.

"Albus?", Minerva asked worriedly.

"Sirius found 'em like that. Didn't wanna let go, poor lil`ones", the man explained, drying a tear with a tablecloth sized handkerchief.

Albus Dumbledore looked down at the two sleeping boys as his mind spun. Why would the Potters take a child into their house? Non of their friends had a child this age aside from Alice and Frank, but this was not Neville. There was only one other explanation. Voldemort had brought this child with him, no doubt to perform a gruesome ritual.  
>A smile spread on his wrinkled face. What a twist of fate, that these two innocent boys, who should have sealed the fate of the magical word, had bested Voldemort! The headmaster cradled the two sleeping children and carefully sat them down at the Dursleys' doorstep. What fate brought together should not be separated. There had been no other attacks on magical families and no baby had been kidnapped, so the other boy was surely a muggle.<br>He just added a few more lines to the letter. The child looked like he was Harry's age, so he would probably know his given name. After a minute of consideration he brought the quill down to the parchment and wrote.

_Only weeks before their death, Lily and James decided to adopt a child. As the child has no living relatives besides his brother Harry, I will leave him in your care. _

He read the sentence and nodded to himself. Very good. He finished and folded the letter and placed it on top of the sleeping children, and ignoring Minerva's protests, left them there. He had done his best for Harry and the wizarding world.


	3. Healthy Eating

**3. Healthy eating**

Tom Marvolo Riddle, currently Tom Potter, decided that his life officially sucked.

His very first mistake was telling them his real name, when they asked. There went his chance to finally get a better name than"Tom". He'd nearly fainted when he heart the muggle woman mutter that he had been adopted by the Potters. What the hell had Dumbledore told them? He wasn't Harry Potters bloody brother! Adopted or otherwise!  
>Fuming he glared at his three year old nemesis, who was currently sleeping peacefully in their shared cupboard. A cupboard! These blasted muggles had shoved him and Potter in a bloody cupboard!<br>He had never wished for a wand that much, ever!

Unfortunately, he had none. His first childhood had been a long time ago and he couldn't remember how it had felt back then. In fact, all memories of his childhood in the orphanage were tightly bundled in the rearmost corner of his mind.  
>He knew only so much: having no magic sucked. Sure, he could do some minor spells, but not even enough to frighten the muggels properly.<p>

It seemed like fate truly hated him. He glared at an unimpressed spider and then at the cupboard door. He needed to wait two more hours before he could open it and get the necessary food for him and his `brother´. Two weeks after his `parents´ death, he had started to get an idea why Potter had always been so small and scrawny. They did not feed him enough. Stupid muggles. Stupid Potter. Why exactly was he getting the boy food again instead of suffocating him with a pillow?

Harry choose that moment to turn in sleep, mumbling incoherently and snuggle into Tom, who`s glare softened involuntary, before he caught himself and scowled. Right, that's why. Because that stupid child had to be adorable cute and somehow awaken his non-existent paternal-instincts. Well, that and he didn't want to spend his youth locked in a muggle-psychiatry. Though, killing the Dursleys, that might be worth it.

Heavy steps, which let dust flutter down on their heads, signalled that the father-whale was off to sleep. Tom waited another ten minutes to be sure, then opened the cupboard. He only could do minor spells, but those were keeping them healthy. He assembled a healthy dinner for two small kids and headed back. At the beginning he had been worried that Petunia might find out, but as healthy food consisted in vegetables and she never suspected a child to willingly eat those, so so far he had gotten away.

"Wake up", Tom demanded roughly and nudged the sleepy toddler.

"Whasematter?" Harry mumbled and blinked at him. Instead of an answer, Tom placed the plate in front of him.

"Eat, I have to annihilate the traces", he ordered. "And don't forget the kohlrabi!"

Harry pouted. He hated kohlrabi, but Tom made him eat it anyway.  
>"I don't wanna. It's yucky!"<p>

"The word is `disgusting´ not `yucky´ and vegetables are healthy. Now eat."

Harry looked up on him with large, green, watery eyes. Tom facepalmed and dug into his pocket. Defeated he took out a chocolate bar.  
>"But first you eat your vegetables!"<p>

Harry's happy smile had him reduced to a puddle of goo in a matter of seconds.

He was so doomed.

* * *

><p>An: That was the first of the childhood-drabbels. As I said, chapter length will vary greatly. Thank you for the mails and Reviews!<p> 


	4. Parents

**4. Parents**

"Tom?"

"..."

"Tom?"

"..."

"..."

"Ow!", Tom let out a stream of words, which no three and a half year old should know. In fact, not even a thirty year old should. "Are you crazy?"

"You didn't react!", Harry defended himself. "And you don't answer me!"

"Well, though!", Tom retorted petulantly and turned away. He really, really didn't want to have this conversation.

"But you know sm´thing", Harry pouted, "and I really, really really wanna know!"

"Ask Petunia. She is your aunt, after all", Tom said dismissively and glanced out of the corner of his eye at Harry. Immediately he regretted it. His little `brother's´ eyes were swimming with tears.

"But she said my dad was a good-for-nothing drunkard and my mum was an easy girl. I don't even know what it is, but I don't think it is nice", Harry exclaimed. His lip trembled dangerously.

Tom sighed. What he knew about the Potters, he knew from Snape, probably not the most objective source.  
>"As far as I know your dad was a arrogant little brat and bully in school and a reckless idiot afterwards. Your mum was a bright witc...woman and very pretty." As he said, Snape's reports might have been a little biased. To his horror, Harry's lip wobbled even more.<p>

"My dad was a... a bully? Like Dudley?" he sniffled.

"Um, no... I mean..." Tom searched for and explanation frantically. Which idiot had said truth was gold?"I'm sure he grew out of it and they both loved you very, very much!" So much it had killed him, to be precise. Harry looked at him unsure if he wanted to cry or not. Tom reached out and patted his head twice. "There you go. They were good people. Just always remember rule number one."

"Don't listen to aunt Petunia?"

"Exactly!"

Harry nodded and stuck his thumb into his mouth. Tom did not even admonish him but sighed in relieve. Catastrophe averted. For now at least.

"Tom?"

"Yes, Harry?" Tom said in a slow, pained voice of a suffering parent. Like any good, attentive child, Harry ignored the tone completely.

"What is an `easy girl´?"

* * *

><p>AN: I received the comment, that I should put the story under Humor and did just that. Thanks for the Reviews!<p> 


	5. Magic

**5. Magic**

"Harry..."

"Go 'way", came a muffled voice from under their blanket.

"Come on..."

"Go 'way! Leave me alone!" now the miserable voice had an irate undertone. Tom scowled at the bulge under the blanket.

"We share this cupboard, you know. I can't simply go away", he reminded the other boy snippy. _Though that will work not much longer,_ he added in thoughts. Now that they were nearly five years old it was getting quite crowded in here.

"I'm a freak!", Harry sobbed, "And I'll make you bad, too!"

Tom's eyebrow twitched. With one pull he ripped the blanket from Harry's clutches.  
>"Now you listen to me! You are NOT a freak. And you can not infect me, even if it were possible, which it's not, since magic is genetic."<p>

Red rimmed eyes stared up on him in a picture of misery.  
>"What?"<p>

Tom rubbed his temples. It could not be healthy for a preschooler to have constant migraine, could it? And now he had to give Harry The Talk. He had avoided it as long as possible, but now... Great! He loved his life!  
>"Magic exists. You and I are wizards and can do a lot of very cool things. There! Now stop crying, for Merlin's sake!"<p>

Well, at least now he looked more confused than sad. Which was good, because Tom always felt the need to slaughter someone when Harry felt sad, which lead to them being left alone by Dudley. Tom allowed himself an evil chuckle. The little fat whale had even left his chocolate, which gave him more bribery material for Harry to eat his vegetables. He was a genius!

"We are... wizards?"

Every normal child above the age of three would have questioned the fact. Harry was by no means a stupid child, but his world revolved around his big brother since he was fifteen-months old, so his first reaction was puzzlement and not incredulity.  
>Tom nodded with the adequate gravity for this life-changing revelation.<br>"Yes. Your parents were magical, too. When you turn eleven you will go to Hogwarts and learn to do magic properly."

Harry gaped at him.  
>"Wow!"Then, after a long, stunned break, he asked concerned: "And you?"<p>

"I guess I'll be going, too", Tom sighed not sure if he was happy about the fact. He really, really liked Hogwarts. It had been is first – actually his only – home, ever. On the other hand he'd have to put up with Dumbledore for seven years. Damn, he still needed a disguise. While it was hard to recognize a baby's face, the headmaster had known him as a eleven-year-old. Well, he still had seven more years to figure out something.

"So... It is okay then that I let the remote control fly away from Dudley?", Harry asked nervously.

Tom grinned evilly.  
>"Oh, but of course! He could use a bit exercising anyway. But I suggest you try not to do it again, though. Petunia and Vernon will get mad."<p>

Harry nodded solemnly. Then he beamed up on him.  
>"Tell me about Hogwarts! And magic! Can you really get a rabbit out of a hat? Can you teach me? Please!"<p>

Tom groaned and bashed his head sidewards against the cupboard wall. Life had been so much easier as evil dictator.

* * *

><p>AN: Wow, I'm flattered! Thank you for the Reviews. I corrected the mistakes Martel mentioned. Really, punctuation is something I'm afraid I cannot do correctly even in German.. Thank's a lot for explaining!<br>Peirl: The first time Voldemort died, was technically when Harry was fifteen-month old. He should have died by then, but survived because of the Horkruxes.


	6. School

**6. School**

"Now aren't you a sweet little boy!"

Tom's eye twitched. Harry, who was familiar with his brother's more.. well, homicidal urges, grabbed his shoulder reassuringly.

The woman pinched Tom's cheek.

Now, there was ignorance and there was a serious lack of self-preservation instinct. Harry decided that the woman might suffer under the latter but he surely did not so he carefully backed away.

Fortunately for the future-respectively-almost-not headmistress of the two wizards, Petunia choose this moment to remember that the last time Tom's eye had twitched _that_ way, Dudley hadn't eaten for one day afterwards. In fact, he had gone pale as a sheet and had run from the room. The room being the kitchen made the whole thing even more suspicious and worrisome.  
>So she let out a high-pitched-forced laugh and ushered the boy away from the woman.<p>

"Well," the headmistress said a little put out, "Are you sure the two are ready to be send to school a year earlier than usual?"

Tom snorted and intensified his glare, just for good measure. He was eighty plus! The hell he could spell! At least if they hadn't made any new and completely needless spelling reforms...

Petunia, seeing her charges glare slowly wandering to her – and remembering that the last time she had ignored _this_ her laundry had turned pink, aside from the boy`s clothes, that is – tripped over herself to ensure the woman that, yes, the two were quasi reborn Einsteins and totally ready for school.  
>It still took Tom solving a function with tree variables to convince her ("Swot!" "Shut up, Harry.") but half an hour later the two boys were happy little first-former. In Tom´s case on pain of a slow, gruesome death without the "little", of course.<p>

Petunia – who had just unknowingly saved a life – was on the verge of tears, as she stumbled out of the office. Tears of relief, that is. At least her sweet angel wouldn't be in the same class as the monster beside her!

"Petunia."

The woman turned and slowly looked into the black eyes that fixed her not unlike a snake a mouse before... Which idiot had said children eyes were innocent and sweet?

"You will give us Dudley`s second bedroom."

Petunia gulped.

* * *

><p>I felt compelled to stress Tom´s menancing side... he Isn't all soft suddenly :), no worries!<p>

His allknowingness (I know it isn't a word, but I have yet to find a translation I like.) will be the topic of one of the next chapters, so I don't want to comment on it.

Thanks a lot for the comments! You really raise my spirits with all the exams at the moment! (Three only this week, thus the late update. And I have still nine more to go... )

Auf bald!


	7. Homework, Wands and Presents

**7. Homework, Wands and Presents  
><strong>

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

"No, no, no. You still don't get the pronunciation. It's Win-_gar_-dium Levi-_o_-sa", Tom emphasized and made the correct switch with his wand, uhm, twig. Harry pouted at him.

"You can't know that I do it wrong!"

Tom gave him his best wise-and-allknowing-bigger-brother-look.  
>"Of course I do. You just want me to make Petunia's plates float again. And no, that won't happen! I just got them to give us Dudley's second bedroom!", he added at Harry's hopeful face.<p>

"Yeah... _convinced _them, hu? Sure!" Harry mocked.

"Yes, _indeed,_"Tom said in the most dignified voice a seven-year-old could muster, together with a raised eyebrow and a shut-up-stare. Ridiculously enough it worked with most adults, aside from Vernon, unfortunately.

If he only could be sure that his former servants wouldn't kill them both on sight, he would be long out of this blasted house! Unfortunately, none of them had known him as a child and the only ones that would help him were mad and in Askaban. He wasn't sure if he wanted help from Bellatrix, anyway. She'd been hot for him as he looked like a human snake, he wouldn't put it past her to assault a seven year old boy.  
>Tom shuddered.<p>

"Hey, you okay?"Harry asked concerned.

Tom got his act together and looked at his `brother´sternly.  
>"Yeah, I'm fine. Either you practice charms or we'll go over your maths homework! I know you did it sloppily!"<p>

Instantly the concern was switched with a pout.  
>"You're so no fun, Tom!"<p>

* * *

><p>"What is this, Tom?", Harry asked curiously. His fingers were twitching to grab the object of his interest. Tom saw the twitch and brought said object out of Harry's reach.<p>

"This is a wand."

"But didn't you say we wouldn't get wands until we come to Hogwarts?", he asked innocently.

"No. I said _you_ wouldn't get your wand before Hogwarts", Tom corrected smugly. Harry thought shortly, then frowned.

"That's mean! I practise a lot!"

Tom felt rather generous today, so he gave him a condescending nod.  
>"Maybe I'll let you try a few spells later."<p>

"Yeay!", Harry shouted and pumped a fist into the air.

Tom had snatched the wand form a wizard, who had bowed to Harry the other day. Fools, the whole lot. He still had to tell him the truth about his parents death, but he wasn't looking forward to it.  
>Later that day, after he had restored the room to a somewhat habitable place, he twirled the wand between his fingers. At first, he would redecorate the room. These broken toys over there had always bothered him. He opened his mouth, then stopped as he remembered something.<p>

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are the best brother, _ever_!"Harry shouted as he squeezed the life out of him. Tom rattled and pried his brother of him.

"Yeah, whatever", he said dismissively. Harry wasn't bothered the least and beamed brightly at him, before dashing away to play with his newly repaired toys. Tom watched him with a shake of his head.

He was getting soft.

And he didn't care.

* * *

><p>AN: Originally those were two chapters, but since they were a little short, I decided to put them together. I'm pretty relieved, had a nasty virus on my laptop. I took me 13 hours of research, scanning and fiddling to get my documents. Honestly, do your data backups..<p>

On the bright side I passed my English exams! Yeay! And only 8 more exams to go...

Thank you a lot for your support!


	8. Allknowing

**8. All-knowing**

"Tom? Why do you know everything?", eight year old Harry asked curiously, as his brother was done burning the newspaper. It was a daily ritual since Tom had gotten his wand. Every morning an owl came and delivered it. Tom read after school and at the latest halfway through he'd get mad at the ministry and burn it. Harry secretly counted. In average a newspaper survived ten minutes. He liked the owls best, anyway. They were really great and Thursdays it was always a brown one, which he could cuddle a bit. Tom didn't want him to have an owl until he got to Hogwarts, though.  
>Spoil sport!<p>

"Hm?", Tom brushed the ash from the table and vanished it with a look of utter disgust. Harry giggled. He almost looked like his English teacher, when he saw Liz and Ann read Twilight!

"You know... all the stuff about magic and Hogwarts and my parents and all the stuff in school, too. Where do you know it from?"

Tom carefully propped his chin on his hands.  
>"I'm simply amazing."<p>

Harry snorted.  
>"Oh, come on! Tell me!"<p>

"Well, I am!", Tom said grinning. Riling his brother up was always fun. Harry's brows furrowed, a dead give-away that a temper tantrum was about to erupt. That is, a tantrum in Harry style. He had long since recognized that his brother didn't care if he raged and shouted and changed tactics to a hurt look and silent treatment.  
>Tom glared hat him, as Harry turned away with his hands deep in his pockets.<p>

"I just know, okay? It's a secret."

"I won't tell!", Harry reassured him eagerly.

"Can't tell you, though."

"You don't trust me!"

"No, I.."

"If you would trust me, you'd tell me!"

"It's a bit more complicated..."

Harry crossed his arms stubbornly and pouted. Tom resisted the urge to pull his hair out.  
>"See. If I tell you, they would take me away from you", he explained in a very serious voice. Instantly, Harry lost his pout.<p>

"What?", he exclaimed frightened, "but they can't!"

Tom looked at him grimly.  
>"They can do that. And some wizards can look into your head and find out even though you don't tell them voluntary. So I do trust you, but I can't risk that they separate us."<p>

Harry was still worried.  
>"And as long as you don't tell anybody, they won't know?"<p>

"Not that easily", Tom affirmed.

His brother thought a while, then rushed to him and hugged him very firmly.  
>"Then you must never tell me! So they can never get you!"<p>

Startled, Tom patted his back. He'd never get used to hugs.  
>"Don't worry... I won't let them. I won't let them separate us."<p>

He didn't wonder any longer that he meant it. 

* * *

><p>Finally Harry´s reaction to Tom´s knowledge...Took me a while, but I´m still caught up in my exams... Sorry.<p>

Thanks a lot for your Reviews!


	9. Confession

**9. Confessions – of sorts**

"These people are so weird!" Harry exclaimed exasperated, as he came out from his hiding – a changing carbine in a muggle mall in Surrey. "What is it with them bowing to me all the time? Is this kind of a sect or what?"

Tom wisely kept his mouth shot and grunted non-committedly. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't quite as unobservant as he had been once.

"Tom?"

"Yes?", the addressed responded innocently. Harry's eyes narrowed. Damn! He had to work in his innocent face! He remembered being quite successful with it the first time around.

"You know something."

"I know a lot. Don't you need new shoes? There is the shop..." He tried to hurry into the shop, but Harry caught him.

"Don't even try changing the topic! You know why the strange people in capes bow to me, I see it!", Harry fumed and shoved Tom to a chair of the nearby ice-cream parlour. If he didn't know, that the location was purely coincidental, he would have accused Harry to manipulating him into buying his brother ice-cream. As it was, he ordered the biggest cup offered, in the hope Harry fainted before he had to answer the question.

His strategy didn't work out, thought Harry was quite hyper once he was half-way finished with his sundae.  
>"So. Spill!", he ordered, obviously satisfied to have his big brother nervous for once. Of course he wasn't aware that all he needed to do to get Tom in a near-panic-state, was getting inured. Or cry. Or both, though that proved to be unhealthy for the surroundings.<br>Tom rubbed his temples. Admittedly he had postponed the issue long enough. Didn't help him, though, with how to tell an nine year old that his brother wasn't his brother, but an former evil Dark Lord, who had killed his parents, while he, Harry, was supposed to kill him according to a prophesy, which was no longer relevant since he had already fulfilled it in another time-line, where he had killed Tom seven years from now. Yes, a perfect afternoon tea topic!

"Ok", he started rather lamely and glanced upwards. Maybe Harry had changed his mind in the last two minutes. But no, no such luck. "Well, see. It was like that. What has Petunia told you about your parents´ death?" He spoke as little as possible with the Dursleys.

"They died in a car accident", Harry told him sadly,"But according to rule number one, she lied."

"Completely right!", Tom affirmed proudly, but then grew serious."By now, you know that your parents were magical. So a car accident is quite ridiculous. I think I need to start really early. Do you remember the history lessons I gave you?"

Harry scrunched up his face.  
>"What have my parents to do with the goblin wars?"<p>

"Uhm, nothing. I meant the more recent ones."

"Oh", Harry thought hard, while Tom watched him and mentally lay out a strategy. "You mean the war with Grindelwald?"

"Yes, exactly", Tom confirmed, while shaking his head mentally. Had he really told him nothing about the war? "After Dumbledore had defeated Grindlewald, there were about twenty years of peace. During that time, another Dark Lord rose in power. He was a charismatic person and soon gathered a lot of followers, who were called Death Eaters. His goal was similar to Grindelwald's. He wanted to purify the magical world of halfbloods and mud...muggleborn and leverage the purebloods to power, with him as the ruler."  
>Merlin. He'd like to shuffle his doings of as sins of youth, but unfortunately he had already been around 65 at that time. Potter, he referred to the other Harry always as Potter, had been right, he had been hypocritical. Or not as much him but more his little mudblood friend, Granger. If he could have substituted five Goyle's against one of her, victory would have been his.<p>

Well, he ha a second chance now, hadn't he?

"He threw the wizarding world into chaos for many years, until one fateful evening, a young Death Eater overheard the making of a prophesy." he made a dramatic pause. Harry was a good listener and asked:

"What did it say?"

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the dark-..."

"You are so stupid!"He was interrupted by Harry, who threw a biscuit at him. Tom laughed, while his younger brother fumed. After he regained composure – and brushed himself of from cookie crumbs, he got serious again.

"Okay, okay. It said: _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, Born as the seventh month dies...And the Dark Lord will mark him as equal, But he will have power the Dark Lord kno__ws not...And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the others survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..._'"Tom trailed of and let the information sink in. Merlin, what he had done to get all of this stupid prophesy. Ridiculous.

Harry gulped, wide eyed.  
>"And who killed the Dark Lord?"<p>

Tom looked at him meaningful.  
>"Take a guess."<p>

The boy pondered the question. Then he gasped.  
>"You did! That's why you know everything! Because you are super-powerful!"<p>

Tom sputtered.  
>"<em>What<em>? No! Though I am super-powerful... But no! You did, of course!"

"_I_?", Harry shouted in shock, "I was barely fifteen months old!"

"So was I", Tom reminded him.

"Well, you are different", Harry protested, which almost made Tom smile. He had no idea just how much different. Well, it looked like he had to tell him the rest of the story.

"I am amazing, but not that much", Yeah, because killing himself and then getting reborn was even for him a bit much... "Anyway... all requirements were met, your parents had defied the Dark Lord three times, your birth was at the end of July. When your parents realized that, they went into hiding. However, they were found." At this point, Tom considered telling him of the treason, but then refrained "The Dark Lord killed your parents, but for some reason, as he shot the killing curse at you, it rebounded. The impact left this scar, though, `his mark´." He pointed at the lightning scar. "Then he was killed by his own curse and everybody was happy. Him and his followers excluded, of course. Well, some of them, at any rate." Nobody could make him believe that Lucius was actually sad when he died. "So, the wizarding world worships you as their saviour and whatnot, which brings us back to the bowing."

Harry looked at him for a very long time.  
>"Just what did they put in your ice-cream?"<p>

"Hey! This is true!", Tom exclaimed indignantly.

"Yeah sure!"

"Really!"

"Of course.."

* * *

><p>AN:I <em>so<em> love this chapter. It is my favourite one!  
>The chapters will get longer soon, don't worry .<br>Plus, I´m done with my exams, have only failed two, and have now 2 weeks holidays which I can spend writing before my job start in August. Thank you for the Reviews!


	10. Shopping

**10. Shopping**

With a wand at hand, Tom decided he needed to visit Diagon Ally. He just needed money. The problem was easily enough solved, though, as the parents of his classmates had very unprotected pockets and hence wallets. He couldn´t always borrow money from Vernon, after all.

Fortunately, Harry did not know about how he had gotten the money. Tom just could not cure him from his moral conscience. Where the hell had he gotten it from in the first place? The Dursleys had certainly not installed it and fifteen months were hardly sufficient, even for the world's best parents, to turn a normal boy into an angel.

It didn't matter, as he currently sat in a bus to London. The Dursleys were off to visit Vernon's dreadful sister Marge and wouldn't be back for another day or two and Harry had an excursion that lasted all day. Tom was in a different form and skipped the day. It wasn't as if he could learn anything. Besides, his teachers hailed him as prodigy – which he was, of course. He'd just dish them a sappy story and he'd be out of trouble.

At first, he had wanted to take Harry with him, but that would have risen questions and of course a lot of unwanted attention. After all, they weren't supposed to know about magic, yet. Additionally he had some things to deal with, that Harry better didn't know of.

The journey took awfully long the muggle way, but he had no magical money, yet. That was why his first stop was Gringotts.

"Good afternoon, I'd like to unfreeze my account", Tom said pleasantly, while inwardly fuming that he was too small to look over the countertop. The goblin leaned forward and peered down to him.

"And you might be, sir?", he drawled. Tom smirked his creepiest mini-dark-lord-smile.

"Tom Riddle. I would prefer a more private setting..."

The goblin's eyes widened and he nodded.

"Of course."

Five minutes later he sat in front of his private account manager and counted three drops of blood into a basin to attest his identity. As expected, the potion turned blue. The Goblin didn't so much as twitch.

"May I be the first to congratulate you, Mr Riddle."

"You may", Tom patronized, very content with himself. Even as he had been three quarters crazy he hadn't been stupid enough to averse the goblins. After all, all of his followers had their money deposed here, himself not excluded. "I have some irregular wishes, though. Gringott's policy hasn't changed I hope?"

This time the goblin smiled greedily.

"Of course not, Mr. Riddle."

The policy meant as much as: Money lets the world go round. Being a Dark Lord had been a very profitable profession. Tom drew a breath.

"Very good. I need to change the vault in the name of Tom Potter. I hope I am the only one with access and insight?"

The goblin nodded.

"As far as Gringotts is concerned you are currently 84 years old and in no need of a financial supervisor."

Tom hummed approvingly: "Then I need you to do me a little favour. I need to be registered under Tom Potter in the ministry, if this hasn't already happened and I need to have my Hogwarts enrolment under that name. Just charge my account. That would be all, for the moment."

The goblin raised an eyebrow, but nodded and made some notes.

"May I ask, sir, if you have in mind to start a new war? The stock market tends to react in predictable ways to `terroristic attacks´."

"No, not in foreseeable future", Tom answered. He liked making business with goblins.

Pockets full with money, he decided to do a bit of shopping. Since the Hogwarts letter wouldn't come till two years from now, he could only buy the books of the teachers he knew of and some background material, of course.

More importantly was his disguise.

He was very proud of himself that he had resisted the temptation of killing the stupid witch, who had flattered around him at the hairstylist. His mood was further dulled, as she told him that his hair couldn't be dyed magically. To change it at least a little, he elongated it to his shoulders. Scowling at his reflection he exited the shop. At first he had feared he would look like Snape with his ever present greasy curtain, but instead of flat and boring his hair got curly in the most ridiculous way! It weren't even proper locks, just an irregular, messy, frizzy something! There was a reason why he had kept them short all his life!

His next stop was at the optician. He was slightly far-sighted, but had never bothered with glasses before. They were a weakness, after all. He didn't plan to get some now, either. Harry insisted on them, since he thought contacts felt weird, but Tom was too vain for glasses and he wanted to change his eye colour anyway. Since any light colour wouldn't work on his nearly black eyes, he decided with a little smirk in favour of green contacts. He was posing as Harry's brother after all.

He was surprised as he looked into a shop window as he walked to the Leaky Cauldron. He still had different features than Harry, but in proper clothes, with long – and frizzy, he thought scowling– hair and dark green eyes, he really could pass as his brother. Well, that would certainly provide material for some juicy rumours in Hogwarts, as he was supposedly adopted and not blood related to Harry. So far, the wizarding world had no clue that he even existed. Well, nineteen months from now, they would find out.

* * *

><p>Thank you all for your Reviews and corrections!<br>I thought this chapter is a good place to mention, that no, there will be no magical heirs, creatures, lost ancestries or relationships of any kind with Gryffindor, Slytherin (aside from Tom), Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. The founders have done just that, founded a school and are in no way incredibly rich and if they were, some greedy heir robbed out the vaults about 800 years ago. Harry will not be related in any kind to Snape, nor will he be incredible rich, powerful, animagus of a magical creature or be a magical creature. There will be no soulmates, true love with eleven, irrational, randomly made magical oaths, out of proportion blown wandless magic or phantasy familiars.

Sorry for all who favour superpowerful Harry/Tom, but I think it´s boring. Tom is only rich because in my opinion it's a logical consequence. He was a warlord and ally of several filthy rich purebloods, after all.


	11. The owl

**11. The owl**

The pillar box rattled.  
>"Dudley, get the post", Vernon ordered form behind his newspaper.<br>Dudley grumbled and got the post.

"Dad, my acceptance latter from Smeltings!"

Upstairs, a tapping was heard from the window.  
>"Harry, get the post", Tom ordered from behind his newspaper.<br>Harry grumbled and relieved the brown post owl of its two letters.

"Tom, our acceptance letters from Hogwarts!"

Tom folded his newspaper and nodded.  
>"Very good. They certainly took their time. Now eat your breakfast. We have to go to Diagon Alley and get the rest of our stuff."<p>

"By the way, why didn't you get everything as you went the last time?" Harry asked between two bites, while Tom wrote a quick reply to McGonagall, effortlessly forging Petunia´s handwriting.

"I didn't know about the defence books and Snape changes his requirements for first years every few terms, too", Tom replied, "And no speaking with full mouth."  
>Harry rolled his eyes, but complied. He didn't care either way, just as long as he got to go to Diagon Alley! Tom had told him, of course, but so far he had never been allowed to accompany his brother.<p>

About two hours later a frowning Tom restrained a minimal hyper Harry, as he tipped the bricks of the wall, which hid the entrance to Diagon Alley. Praying for patience he endured Harry's exuberant excitement while at the same time collecting all necessary items.  
>He vaguely remembered the boy having an owl, so they looked into Eeylops Owl Emporium, which they left with a beautiful snowy owl. Tom had no idea why he wanted Harry to have the same owl as in his first life, but he didn't dwell on the topic. It was a very nice owl, full stop.<p>

They got their robes made and Tom spent extra money for a few sets of high-quality everyday sets. Now that he had the money, he wouldn't run around like an orphan the second time and neither would his brother.  
>He was in no need of more money, so he skipped Gringotts and went to Olivander´s. A few yards before they could enter he stopped dead in his tracks.<p>

"You better go in there alone."

Surprised, Harry stopped staring at the various displayed goods and turned to him.  
>"Why?"<p>

"Uhm..", Tom looked for an excuse, „because your first wand is something special. That and I have something to do."

Harry frowned, not happy with his explanation but at the same time not in the mood to argue and wait even longer for his wand. Besides, he was used to his brother's secrets.  
>"Well, okay then, I guess. But you'll wait for me, okay?"<p>

Tom nodded and handed him more than enough money to pay. He had nothing to do, of course, but he didn't want to risk Olivander recognizing him, as he did with every other customer, no matter how long it had been. That reminded him, how old was the man? He had bought his first wand about 80 years ago, which was now in the hands of the ministry or Dumbledore. Either way not reachable.  
>He had acquired another wand in the Knockturn Alley. So far all magic he had done had counted as accidental magic, but with the Hogwarts letter, they would register any magic from Harry or him. It was a nuisance, but since he could assume that Dumbledore kept a sharp eye on them, at least in the matter of magic, he couldn't get rid of the charm without attraction attention. For example why a pre-Hogwarts-student could chancel over-NEWT-level charms. No, for the time being he would have to get along without magic.<p>

As Harry finally stepped out of the shop, Tom had begun to get nervous. What the hell was taking him so long to find a simple wand? Had Olivander somehow known who accompanied him? The man was one of the few he always had found creepy.

"Look!" Harry exclaimed excited and raised his brand new wand. Tom smiled relieved – and froze. He had forgotten that it was his wand's twin. Alone touching it felt ways better than the unicorn-hair wand he had in his pocket.

"Tom?"  
>Regretfully he let go and forced a smile on his face.<br>"It's a good wand, Harry. He will do you good service."  
>Harry seemed happy enough.<p>

They finished their shopping with only minimal delay and only a few unnecessary littlenesses. In the end Tom had to ask a passing wizard to apply a lightening charm on his numerous bags or they would never make it home.  
>Foreseeing his magical limitation, from now on even wandless magic was monitored, he had changed their room in the Dursley's house accordingly. Nothing was left of the tatty furniture and broken toys. He'd even managed to get Vernon buy a second bed, since his transfiguration skills were adequate, but not sufficient for such a big piece of furniture. He hadn't exactly trained them since Hogwarts either, admittedly.<p>

They put away their school stuff and Harry launched himself at his bed, only to jump up and run to the calendar at the wall. Tom merely raised an eyebrow at his attics, when the boy picked up a red Edding and marked the first of September.  
>"It's only five more weeks!" he exclaimed exited.<p>

Tom nodded absently.  
>"That it is."<p>

Later the moon found the former Dark Lord staring with mixed feelings at the red circle around the date on the paper. 

* * *

><p>I know, there was quite a break, but I during the week I have no internet at the moment and a workaholic as boss, so there is quite little time to write, sorry.<p>

Thanks a lot for your Reviews, though, they keep me going.


	12. Sidekicks

**12. Sidekicks**

"So we have to run through that wall."

"Yes."

"Through that very solid locking stone wall."

"Yes."

"And you are sure you are not kidding me? Because I have you known that stone walls tend to hurt a lot."

"Yes, I'm positively not kidding you."

"Well..."Harry eyed the barrier between platform 9 and 10 distrustful "You wouldn't mind going first, would you? Just to make sure you know."

~.~.~.~

Platform nine tree quarters was buzzing with children and their respective families. Tom had to grab Harry to force him through the crowd, since the idiot had stopped, staring. Well, the sight was pretty impressing, especially since the last time he had seen the Hogwards Express, he had been about two feet taller. Maybe more. And, Merlin, last time there certainly had not been that many brats!  
>Someone crushed painfully into his spine and he was nearly knocked over. Gasping, Tom swayed dangerously and glared at the ignorant soon-to-be-gutted...<p>

"Oh, dear, are you hurt?" The voice yanked him out of his revenge fantasies and a plump, red-haired woman appeared in his sight. He blinked. Damn!

"Thank you, I'm fine", he said monotonously. If he remembered correctly he had killed her brothers. And one or two cousins. And hadn't her farther been that annoying merchant? The memories flashed through his mind and he got pale. Oh, damn. Figures that the first persons he walked into were the Weasleys.  
>But at second thought he had to add, Merlin, they had bred! No less than six children swarmed around the plump woman, all with red hair of course. What was that with the purebloods and their hair anyway? Malfoys married only blonds, Weasleys only red...<br>Getting conscious of his trail of thoughts he admitted that maybe he _had_ hurt his head, after all.

"Thank you, Madam", Harry supplied helpfully as his brother seemed to have blacked out, "We were just getting on the train."

"First years, too? My Ronnie is going to Hogwarts too this year!"

The littlest male redhead blushed and shuffled his feet. Tom refrained from making any comment. After all he had not managed to get that habit out of Harry, so he could hardly sneer over `Ronnie´.  
>At more precise inspection... wasn't this Potter's sidekick? Merlin, he would certainly grow in the years to come! In the end he had been what, nearly six feet five?<br>During his contemplation he had shuffled Harry to the train and shoved their boots into the next free compartment. Ron followed them, while trying to ignore his mother's admonitions. Why the woman bothered was beyond Tom anyway. Hadn't she those diabolic twins to deal with?  
>Well, misery loves company, at least fate was a bitch to others aside from him.<p>

Molly Weasley obviously felt obligated to gush over Harry and Tom, too, since their `relatives´ had `important business´ to take care off. Which meant, of course, that they sat in Surrey, probably without an idea where their two nephews were. Well, Tom _had_ left them a note, but since they checked up the room every what, two weeks, it would take some time till they noticed. Not that they would be bothered, rather the opposite, actually.

Tom got out a book and listened half-heartedly to the nervous chatter of the two kids. He had thought about selecting Harry's friends. Actually he had thought about it very carefully. But in the end his little brother was so the opposite of a cunning Slytherin (apart from gathering sweets), he would never be happy with someone like Malfoy. He should just make his own friends. Actually... Tom grimaced. He had to put up with Lucius´ little copy, just great! His grandfather, now that had been a _man_, but those two wimps... hadn't Lucius been bested by his house elf?

He snorted, getting odd looks from the other two. Ron had taken out his pet-rat and tried some spell on it. Tom looked over it, disinterested – and raised his eyebrows. It was the details that had slipped from his mind. Pettigrew... but as long as Black didn't break out, he would not harm Harry – most probably. On the other hand it was better to take no risks...

The door slid open. Tom blinked surprised, as the girl loaded a torrent of words on Harry, who was just staring openmouthed.

"And who are you?" she asked without waiting for an answer from his gaping brother.

"Tom R...Potter," he caught himself. One should think he´d be used at his new surname, but the train must have triggered old habits.  
>Tom eyed her unsure. He knew this girl. Somehow.<p>

"That cannot be," she said utterly convinced, "you are not mentioned in any book!"  
>Well that was a dead give-away, Tom supposed, while his eye twitched forebodingly. Sidekick number two it was. Well the girl would certainly grow out in the following years. With seventeen she hadn't been hard on the eye.<br>Reminding himself that he probably needed her for his second – or third, depending – attempt for world-domination he refrained from killing her. Barely.  
>On another note: The hell he wasn't in any books! In fact he was probably the most spoken off but not mentioned man ever!<p>

Realizing the foreboding doom, Harry hastily explained they hadn't seen a toad and shoved the girl out of the compartment.

What toad?

Head shaking, Tom opened his bag and got out the _prophet_ he had not been able to read this morning, since Harry had decided he would sleep in today, of all days. Troublesome brat...  
>He unfolded his newspaper and the headline immediately caught his eye.<p>

_BREAK-IN IN GRINGOTTS_

He very nearly dropped the paper. Frantically skimming through the article, he ignored Harry's concerned words. This time the thief had not made it into the vault, but he had escaped nevertheless. But who could break into Gringotts and get out alive?

Well, aside from him, of course.

And Potter.

And Granger.

And Weasley.

Oh well, if a six-seventh crazy spirit and three seventeen year old teenagers could do the stunt, it was probably manageable.

Now, who knew of the philosopher's stone and wanted to steal it?  
>Fine, it promised unimaginable wealth and immortality, which just might attract thieves. And okay, the whole Hogwarts staff knew about it, of whom the half didn't mind a glass or two or three at the Hogshead on weekends. And alright, it was ridiculously easy to just flounder into a school with 1000 people, as long as you had a dose of polyjuice or a nice glamour or an invisible cloak or just smiled friendly…<p>

Tom decided to accept the invitation for a game of exploding snap. His thoughts were getting increasingly depressing. 

* * *

><p>Thank you all for your motivating reviews (Thank you also katzol, for commenting the other chapters, too)! I am sorry to update that late, but I have an internship with a workaholic superior.<p>

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter – Hogwarts is coming! Yeay!


	13. Little Nuisances

**13. Little nuisances**

There were times when Tom hated Harry. A lot.

Because he had killed him.

Because he had killed his host.

Because he had killed his sixteen-year-old-version.

Because he had killed his Horcruxes.

Because he had killed him.

To his defence, Tom supposed these were very valid reasons to hate somebody. Now, this time around Harry had never killed him (he was reborn, after all.) But he still hated him for inviting Hermione Granger to sit with them, who was currently staring at him intently.  
>Honestly, did he <em>want<em> blood and gore on his new uniform?

Just as Tom decided he would hex the girl for bloody staring at him, she spoke up.

"Have you ever thought of cutting your hair?"

Tom raised an eyebrow very slowly. He liked to think it looked menacing. Unfortunately, in the last future he had no more eyebrows and now he was eleven years old and looked probably more cute than scaring.  
>"Do you really think you are the right person to question someone's hair?" he drawled and returned Harry´s be-nice-look with a see-I-don´t-need-to-hex-people-look.<p>

Hermione just crooked her head and eyed him up openly.

"Well, you see _I_ have proper locks," She tugged at one of her wild locks as an evidence, "_you_ on the other hand have just an irregular, messy frizzy _something. _Are you sure you wouldn't look better with short hair?"

Tom stared at her for a very long time. Proving an astounding lack of self-preservation and the reason why she, in fact, would be sorted in Gryffindor and not in Rawenclaw, Hermione stared back.

He was on the train ride to hell.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

As it has come up, here my opinion regarding disclaimers: Isn´t the whole point of writing fanfiction to use characters you don't own? I think it is highly ridiculous for people explaining they don't own Harry Potter if the story is marked as fanfiction in the category Harry Potter….

Anyway, **thanks a lot** for all the Reviews and please forgive me for updating so sporadically. RL just sucks sometimes. The next chaperts will be longer again, I promise.

Regarding HArry: I won´t tell to much, but the clue about Harry Potter is, that he is, in fact, nothing special. He has a few talents (such as Quidditch or DADA) but nothing particular exordinary. So don´t be too disappointed, if he will not be able to breath fire, have an X-ray look or change into a dragon. Tom can do more, but hey, he is 80 something in mind, it would be pretty pathetic if he did not.


	14. The Hat

**14. The hat**

"Do you really think we have to fight a troll?" Sidekick number two whispered panicky. Tom rolled his eyes. Harry glanced at him uncertain, with made him roll his eyes once more. He had told him about the sorting ceremony, of course. The brat'd better not start doubting his omniscience suddenly! Besides, hadn't the Granger girl read a Hogwarts History? Actually, hadn't she read every book on the list at least twice?  
>Sighing Tom glared at nobody particular, pondering. It was frightening how much he knew of Harry, his friends and classmates. He had really been obsessed with the boy...<br>Then again, he had taught the brats for a year, if only from the second row.

"Follow me now!" McGonagall's crisp voice broke through his musings and he stepped in line beside Harry. The gates opened and the great hall in all its glory revealed itself to the gaping first-years. Tom looked over the stunned faces and quickly erased the scowl. Wouldn't do to attract attention even before the sorting. Still, the last time he was here... he shuddered. The Sorting Hat stood exactly at the same place he had stood ten years ago – or seven in the future, depending how you looked at it – and had died. Would die. Whatever.

He ignored the whispers in the great hall, keeping his eyes firmly on Malfoy's slicked back hair. Dumbledore was sitting right there. Alive. Probably twinkling. Yeah, scratch that, undoubtedly twinkling. He didn't look at the man. Would have to soon enough.

_Damn_, he was _nervous_!  
>As if the bloody hat would put him anywhere else than Slytherin!<p>

Wouldn't he?

"Abott, Hannah!"

"Brown Lavender!"

Tom zoomed out, only absently noting the names.

"Potter Harry!"

He perked up, giving his little brother a shove in the right direction and making a mental note to make sure not to let the hat drop over _his_ eyes. It looked ridiculous. While the whole hall was whispering excitedly, the former Dark Lord eyed his nails in a bored way. As if Harry would go anywhere but Gryffindor. He had really tried to work with the boy, but he was so utterly naïve, foolish and cute, he just had to end up..

"GRYFFINDOR!"

There, his words.  
>Harry stumbled over to his new house and Tom felt only slightly snubbed when he didn't even look back, before he had sat down.<p>

"Potter Tom!"

Half of the hall was still chatting over the famous boy-who-lived and didn't notice. The other half stared back and forth between him and Harry. Tom allowed himself a satisfied smirk and strolled over to the hat. Hello rumours!

Before the rotting cloth touched his head (without falling over his eyes, of course), he risked a glance at the headtable. Dumbledore was staring intensely at him, eyes twinkling but everything but relaxed. The rest of the teachers looked dumbfounded and Snape glared daggers at the headmaster. Well, look who had had no clue of his existence...

"_You know me!"_

"No kidding," Tom thought bored and poked the hat mentally, "Now, sort me!"

"_You cannot order me around!"_ the hat said indignantly, after recovering from the shock of being pulled over the former Dark Lord´s head. Said Lord sighed and mentally picked his fingernails while loudly pondering whether the basilisk was in need of a chewing toy.

"_..."_

"See? Now sort me!"  
>Merlin, how he had missed bossing people around. Or things. Talking things. Whatever.<p>

"_Rebirth has left quite the damage, huh?"_ the hat remarked cheekily.

Tom scowled. Thought-reading was just cheating!  
>He genuinely ignored that he was a Legilimens himself and rather enjoyed fucking with others´ minds.<p>

"_Hypocrite_."

"Hey, I don't need to use legilimentic."

"_Well, _Malfoy_ can mess with your brothers head," _the hat reminded him.

"..." Tom decided that the whole thing was losing its entertainment factor.

The hat laughed.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Still scowling, Tom ripped the hat of his head and made sure to dent its tip just for extra measure, before he made his way to Slytherin.

Though he had just lost an argument with a talking hat, his evening was considerably brightened when Snape sputtered his drink all over his robes, because Tom winked at him.

Life was good.

* * *

><p>Uh, it´s been a while, isn´t it?<br>Just so, I do not intend to drop this FF and I read every Review and dance a happy-dance. But I think you´d rather have me writing more chapters, than lengthy answers, so, well.

Complains to my university please.


	15. Another perspective

_**15. Another perspective**_

"_Harry Potter, hu?"_

Though warned by Tom, Harry startled at the sudden dry voice in his head.  
>"Uhm, yes, Sir!" he hurried to say. His brother had refused to tell him any more about the sorting ceremony, so he as at a loss what to tell the hat. "So… you will sort me?"<p>

The hat chuckled.  
>"<em>That is my job, kid. Of course I will sort you… let´s see…"<em>

Harry had the strange feeling that someone was rummaging through his head. It wasn´t particulary threatening, though, like the mental attacks Tom had warned him from. Additionally, the hat had not said `legilimens´, so he was safe, wasn't he?

"_Oh, I don´t need Legilimency_," the hat answered his thoughts, "_you have an interesting brother there…"_

"There´s nothing wrong with Tom!" Harry thought angrily.

The hat only smirked. Mentally. Somehow he managed that.  
>"Don´t kid yourself. From what I've seen, there are a lot of things wrong with your brother on more levels you can digest. Yes indeed. It will be most amusing to speak with him."<p>

Harry frowned. Okay, Tom was a bit.. other than the others, but well, so was he. He was a wizard, after all. And what business had a _talking hat_ to badmouth people he had never met?

"_Bit protective, are we? Well, enough of Tom. You are not stupid… and you have quite the reckless streak. Have your eardrums recovered from the scolding you got for trying to climb the school roof? Dear! What exactly were you thinking jumping from the Top of the monkey bars? At four years? You are lucky your also four year old brother can obviously cast a cushioning charm… and what did you want in the hyena compound? Oh I see, cuddling with them. Well, for you information, you would have been their lunch. Ah, but your brother already told you that. I dread the poor boy if you decide to play Quidditch."_

"Well…" Harry thought sheepishly, "it all seemed like a good idea at that time."

There was a minute of silence. Then a sigh.  
><em>"I have so heard that comment before…<em>

_GRYFFINOR!"_

* * *

><p>Hey! Thanks fort he Reviews, you really keep me going.. despite the loads of useless irrational work my professors dump on me? Honestly, who needs coltrolling? Banks seem perfectly fine to misplace 55 billion Dollar, so whats the problem?<p>

Yeah… I´ve been questioned about the lack of evil in the story (thanks for the enthusiastic Review!). I can only say that, yes, I noticed and yes, this will change. I just didn't want to pull an antagonist out of my sleeve, the person will come into the story a bit later.


	16. Love life

**16. Love life**

Tom found it surprisingly easy to blandly ignore the angry to irritated glances he got from his housemates, as he sat down next to Harry in Transfiguration. The little brats had nothing on him and wouldn't have for many years to come, if ever. Tom seriously doubted it. Now, if he was a good little boy, he would downplay his superiority to make them feel better. He snorted. As if that would ever happen…

"There will be no fooling around in this class!" McGonagall warned them sternly. Her animagus form was quite cute. Tom set stroking his ego aside in favour of staring at her dreamily. She definitely hadn't minded fooling around with _him_ sixty something years ago. Damn! He certainly wouldn't forget how her stern look had softened when he had unbuttoned her blouse... or her skirt.

Pity, that he couldn't de-age her, somehow. Though... that might be a worthwhile project. Wasn't there a philosopher´s stone lying around conveniently?

She had been one year his senior, but she had that kind of intelligence and spunk that made his ego ignore the slight age difference easily disappear. This kind of spunk he could never resist... If their relationship, and what he had turned out to be, had changed her into the no-nonsense woman she was today? The Minerva he knew had never been one for unnecessary traditions. Or rules. Or positions, for that matter. There was this one time when they should have done their detention in Dumbledore´s classroom, just two desks in front of him, now, when she had sauntered to the front desk and... Aw, man, this woman had shown his teenage self a whole new definition of naughtiness. Who had thought transfiguration would be such an exciting subject..

"Is everything alright?"

Tom nearly fell from his stool.  
>"Er...What?"<p>

"You were looking funny at professor McGonagall," Harry said half concerned, half suspicious.

Tom coughed and blushed unwillingly. It was probably not a good idea for an eleven year old to harbour improper thoughts about his seventy something year old teacher during lessons. Or at all. Then again, it was a lot more immoral for him to think like that of anyone else in this school, seeing as they could be his grandchildren...Definitely a thing he had to figure out. After all, he would be going through puberty again the next few years.

At least they had already covered charms today. He wasn't sure if he would make it through an hour of repeated verbalizations he had to "swish and flick" his wand...  
>Damn! Tom dropped his head on the desk and groaned. Puberty had already kicked in.<p>

_Joy_!

* * *

><p>Hey, all!<p>

Thank you very much for the Reviews and forgive me for updating late. Unfortunetely I´m still not getting paid for this and have rather little leisure at the moment. But hey, I do not oin any way plan to abandon the story.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Years to you all!


	17. Bats and roommates

**17. Bats and roommates**

"Tom _Potter_?"

"Yes, that is my name," Tom said slowly. For being the children of mass murderers his roommates were astoundingly slow on the uptake.

"You know. _Potter_?"

"Yes."

"As in Harry _Potter_?"

"Yes." Tom would have loved to point out, that that was not a correct example of application for this word, but decided that the effort would be lost on them.

"So, are you _really_ Harry Potter´s brother?"

He really started to comprehend why Harry had shot him worried looks all evening. Without him here to hold Tom back, things were way more likely to get gory.  
>"Adopted," he answered with gritted teeth. It wasn't as if the whole house hadn't asked him already. Would Harry terribly mind if he hexed Blondie junior into oblivion? They had hated each other, if he recalled correctly. Unfortunately the two hadn't exchanged a word so far, so he would stall his homicidal urges for a while. Until Harry approved. Damn.<p>

"Are you sure you are adopted?"

Tom´s eye twitched. Maybe a little, small hex? Something really, really harmless, like, from the top of his head, C_rucio_?  
>And to think he had given all of these morons his mark...<br>"Yeah, because you look awfully similar," goon number two contributed.

Tom chose to ignore them – what would only fuel the rumours, but that was half the fun – and threw himself on his bed. Of course, all his things were heavily warded. As were Harry´s, only he didn't know that. Yet.  
>He shortly played with the thought of going out and exploring the castle... or more likely relishing the feeling, but sustained himself. Low profile and all. And if Dumbledore was halfway as perceptive as Tom remembered him, than he monitored him already. After all, who knew what bad influences he could have on Harry. Hypocritical, since he hadn't bothered to check up at them when they were locked in a damn cupboard – he would kill the muggles eventually. As soon as he could afford it without going to Askaban – but that had never withhold him in the past.<br>Anyway, he had to sleep. As far as he knew there was an exhausting day ahead.

About six hours later Tom thanked Merlin for his wise decision. At six o'clock a prefect threw them all out of bed and shooed them down to the common room. Tom fingered his wand. Detention for hexing intruders – i.e. the prefect – or Draco, who was complaining non-stop, had never looked so tempting. He felt very proud when he resisted.  
>To his anger only the first years were in the room, the others obviously allowed to sleep. Great.<p>

Suddenly the door flew open and the children around him flinched. Crabbe let out a girly shriek and tried to jump behind Draco. Unfortunately for him the latter tried the same, which lead to a nice collision and both of them on their bums on the ground. Pathetic.  
>Snape seemed to be of the same mind, since he sneered at the boys, before his gaze swept over the other pupils, stopping at Tom, who wisely had chosen a position in the back of the small group. The boy refrained from staring back or even better, making the traitor´s dark mark burn, just to see his reaction. Instead, he looked at the ground meekly. He had perfected the technique when handling Vernon; before he got a wand, that is. After that he had banned ´meek´ from his vocabulary.<p>

After a tense minute, Snape looked away and launched into his speech about the greatness of Slytherin. It was basically the same Slughorn had given to him seventy years or some ago, but Snape was definitely the better speaker. He especially liked the death threats in the end. Every good speech should be ended with a foreboding gruesome death, it gave the whole thing an emotional touch.  
>"If one of you dunderheads thinks he is above my warning and manages to get himself killed than be sure I will find a way to bring him back to the living to make him pay." Snape glared at them so hard that one of the girls started to cry. Tom nodded approvingly, against his will impressed. He might be a traitor but he was scary like hell. Useful. Now, if he only wouldn't bother Harry, he would even think about letting him live in the long run.<p>

Since his restored mind told him in clear terms that the probability of Snape being all daisies and buttercups with Harry was as about as high as him starting his own shampoo line, he settled with the knowledge that he himself was relatively safe from Snape´s wrath. Firstly he was adopted and thus did not look like a James Potter clone like Harry, and secondly he was in Slytherin.

So, why did he squirm when he remembered Snape´s expression?

Tom would never admit it, but he was relieved that Potions was not due until Friday. The rest of his timetable looked promising – promising boredom, that is. He almost abandoned his plan to lay low, but then again first-year classes were certainly less troublesome than Dumbledore. Or Askaban...  
>It wouldn't be half bad if it wasn't for the company. He could have sworn that in his days, Slytherins were not an awful lot of noisy, bratty arrogant bigots!<br>On the other hand back then he had happily agreed with them. For whatever reason. Meriln, he was halfblood! Why the hell had he pursuit pureblood propaganda? Confusing draught? Befuddlement charm? Or dare he say: _puberty_?

"Where do you live? I heard," Blondie junior scrunched up his face, "that Potter grew up with _Muggles_."

Tom rolled his eyes.  
>"I´m a Potter, too, you know? And yes we did."<p>

Pug face looked horrified.  
>"That is so <em>disgusting<em>!"

Tom shrugged, even if he felt slightly offended. No objection that the Dursleys were disgusting but any house he lived in was automatically a temple. Blasphemous brats. Blondie junior moved away as if he was contagious.

Tom let his voice fade out and sighed wistfully, looking longingly over to the Gryffindor table, where Harry had just fallen into his seat, looking like he had been dragged out of bed a minute ago. Tom frowned at his messy appearance. Honestly, he had taught him better! Taking a last spoon fork of scrambled eggs, he left his seat and determinedly – ignoring Blondie junior´s scandalized outcry – strutted over to his little brother.

Harry´s face lit up when he saw him and he all but launched himself at his brother, completely ignorant of the half curious, half suspicious looks they were getting from his classmates.  
>"Tom! You didn't come over yesterday! How does your dorm look like? Do you really have living snakes in the common room? Is Snape a bat? Or a vampire? Has he bitten you? You look paler than yesterday."<p>

Tom stared at him. And stared. And stared some more. Finally Harry shut up.  
>"So...", he drawled, "We were supposed to go into our common rooms, probably the same like yours in green, no, no, no, conclusion from the last answer, because some daft idiot deemed it necessary to wake me up at 6am."<p>

Harry´s future sidekicks stared at him open mouthed. Tom shoved a plump brown-haired boy aside and plunged himself next to his brother. He had already helped himself with chocopops, which were not on his house table. Bloody Dumbledore with his bloody favouritism. Tom decided then and there that he was going to let him suffer for the audacity to deny him chocopops. How dare he? _How dare he?_

"Ow!" Tom glared at his brother. The girl seated on Harry´s other side whimpered as she was hit by stray death vibes. Harry shrugged unapologetically.

"You did again."

Tom blinked and switched off what Harry called his all destructive glare of gruesome death.  
>"Oh. Well," he hemmed, "how was your evening?"<p>

Beaming Harry launched into a lengthy description of the wonders of Hogwarts and how the fat lady was all dressed in pink and the common room was so cosy, and the beds so huge and so on. The rest of the table looked horrified as did the teachers. Aside from Dumbledore, of course, who just looked dumbfounded. Take that, old man! Wasn't what you expected from a Slytherin, hu? Operation `trick Dumbledore into thinking you are harmless´ phase one, completed. Tom frowned and made a mental note to find a smarter name for his project.

"Harry! He is a Slytherin!" Sidekick one finally interrupted Harry´s word flood. The two brothers looked at him with (pretended) ignorance.

"So what?" they both said simultaneously.

The sidekick thought really hard.  
>"But he.. is a <em>Slytherin<em>!"

Tom opened his mouth to retort with a scratching remark, but sidekick two beat him to it.  
>"Ronald, italicizing a word does not count as a new argument," she sniffed. Tom grinned. Definitely on his recruiting list, hair comments aside. He turned back to his brother, who still looked like he had just played with a Hippogriff herd.<br>With a frown he flicked his wand and Harry stifled a squeak as his clothing straightened magically. Then he glared at his brother.

"Hey!"

Tom shrugged.  
>"No sloppy exterior, Harry," he reminded him, while pondering that it was very fortunate the gulping as a reflex, or else it would be pretty disgusting with all the open mouths around. Harry muttered something about normal children leaving their moms behind when they go at a boarding school. Tom cuffed his head and put some fruits on his plate, putting the greasy bacon and sweet cake aside. Harry glared some more. Tom looked pointedly at the now not so unhealthy breakfast and snatched his brother´s timetable.<p>

"Let´s see. We have a good part of the lessons together anyway. So here..." he started scribbling into Harry´s free periods. Sidekick two looked over his shoulder interestedly as `library´, `potions practical´, `correction´, `qbt´ and many more notes found their way on the paper. Harry, used to his brothers control compulsions, ate his fruits.

"Is he making a homework plan for you?" twin one asked aghast "On the _first_ _day_ of school?"

Harry shrugged unconcerned.  
>"It is easier to just let him and ignore it later on, than to argue with him," he explained. Now it was Tom´s turn to glare, as the twins sniggered. Sidekick one still looked horrified. Sidekick two looked enthralled.<p>

"A good work ethic is important," another redhead said pompously – it looked ridiculous, the boy was fifteen at the most – though he did not look happy to compliment a Slytherin. Tom was rather relieved that he hadn't been so obsessed to know who this boy was. Other than a Weasley, obviously.

"That it is," he affirmed, nodding gravely. Harry patted his head condescendingly.

"He´s a little weird," he apologized, earning laughter from the listeners.

The bell prevented a possible slaughter of the Gryffindor table.

* * *

><p>AN: Thank you for noticing that I had skipped this chapter. Well here it is. :)<p>

A happy new year and thanks for the Reviews!


	18. Potions

**18. Potions**

"I´ve heard Snape hates students," pug-face said worried. She had latched herself at Blondie-junior´s arm. Obviously the boy wasn't in puberty, yet and did not understand the intention, or he would be running away screaming. Oddly enough, Tom found himself envious of that fact. Not of the pug, Gryffindors but of the not-being-in-puberty, of course.

"Only the. And maybe the Hufflepuffs, too, but who doesn't?" Blondie laughed and the other sycophants chimed in. You had to give him that, he was _damn_ fast with gathering followers in Slytherin. Of course, not being a muggle-raised halfblood in a time when it was not unusual for purebloods to go Muggle hunting on weekends, which the ministry turned a blind eye on as long as you cleaned away the mess, might be helpful. Not to mention Blondie senior, who had half of the ministry in his pocket.  
>Yes, Tom did not at all feel compelled to compare himself with the blonde menace.<p>

In front of the dungeons they met the Gryffindors. Tom was relived to find Harry already there. It would so not help him if he was late in top of being James Potter´s son.  
>On the other hand, there was little that could make his situation worse…<p>

"Potter and Potter, our new… celebrities." Snape's lip curled in contempt. Harry, being forewarned and trained for this lesson, said nothing. Tom sneered at the traitor. Who was angry at being kept in the dark by his oh so great leader, hu? There!  
>All things one could blame him with, deceiving his followers was none of them. After all, he tortured them at the first meeting.<p>

Actually… maybe this was one of the reasons why all of his Death Eaters were dumb, incapable idiots.

Unsatisfied with the lack of reaction, Snape began firing out questions. Harry answered them as good as he could. Unfortunately he knew only so much, since he had not learned the whole book by heart. In the end it happened as Tom had foreseen all along: Snape managed to get the dunderhead blow up and gave him a detention.  
>The former Dark Lord sighed heavily. It was just pathetic to first deduct points because one pupil did not know the book by heart and then doing the same thing because another did. He did not miss either that he was the sole Slytherin, who hadn't earned points by the end of the lesson. On the other hand that might have been the better fate, considering that Snape had made him the partner of Looby. The moron had nearly blown up their cauldron. Trice! Fine, so he had been worried to be bored to death in first year classes, but he had not meant the death part that literally!<p>

Fuming, Tom stomped out of the classroom, followed by an equally angry Harry. They shared one look and nodded grimly. Snape would pay. And he would get him where it hurt the most.

The morning a few days later, Dumbledore´s eyes did not twinkle. He did not smile. In fact, he looked at his students in a way he had not felt the need to in many years. The place next to him was empty.  
>"Children!"<p>

The hall was quiet in an instance.  
>"This night, a crime has happened in Hogwarts." The pupils drew a collective breath. Tom rolled his eyes as he saw how the scandalmongers leaned forward greedily. Harry, being the smart boy he was, looked over the assembled teachers and cast a suspicious look at his brother, who made a show of impersonating innocence.<p>

Dumbledore made a dramatic break to raise the tension. Tom had a tough job to refrain from noisily slurping his hot chocolate and rolling his eyes, but he was suspicious enough as it was.  
>"Someone broke into Professor Snape´s personal ingredient storeroom and completely destroyed potion ingredients worth a fortune. After that the person," Dumbledore made another pause before he let the bomb drop, "cast the Dark Mark and left."<p>

The hall exploded in whispers. Tom looked around. On the Gryffindor table, every pupil turned to the Weasley twins, who raised their hands in shock. Many of his muggleborn classmates in the other houses looked clueless, as did Harry. He hurried to adopt the same expression, before he scrutinized his own house. Interesting enough Blondie-junior looked faint, wimp that he was. Many of the others seemed outraged that someone would attack their head of house.  
>The teachers, he noticed, tried to find the culprit due to his reaction. He felt quite affronted to see that most of them looked at his house table. Honestly! If someone got through Snape´s wards – a real challenge, the man was seriously paranoid – then he wouldn't give himself away due to… an evil cackle or something.<p>

Though Tom felt the urge to do just that…

"This is not a prank or in any way amusing," Dumbledore said gravely. Was he paranoid or kept the headmaster looking at him? He didn't, did he? Damn! "I appeal at your honour to tell me or one of your teachers, who committed this crime. This is not a matter of house loyalty. If you are afraid of the consequences or the culprit you can also send an owl. I further ask the prefects to give me a full count of all students outside after curfew yesterday."  
>He sat down and the hall erupted in noise once more.<p>

Tom quietly (but not in a guilty quiet way, huge difference) contemplated the words while finishing his breakfast. Let them think it was a tasteless prank. He and more importantly Snape, knew it was not. After all, the Dark Mark in the rooms of a traitor…  
>Tom had no reason to worry. First of all he was a first year and thus not deemed able to cast the spell. Secondly he was sure nobody had seen him and he had ´practised´ <em>Wingardium Leviosa<em> and Transfiguration about fifty times after the job was finished. It was doubtful that, even in the unlikely event someone would check his wand, they would go back that far. Harry had been in his dorm in the night and he knew the Gryffindor prefect checked up on them in the night.  
>Tom might or might not have let slide the day before yesterday that this would be a responsible deed for a good prefect.<br>Even the twins, who, Harry told him, he found funny, had been in detention with Filch yesterday. Finally, appealing on the pupils could only mean that they had no idea or at least no proof.

No culprit could be found. Snape had a hysterical breakdown and the Friday lesson was cancelled. When Madam Pomfrey discontinued the calming draughts, Tom heard through the grapevine that he had to be physically restrained again, so he could not go and kill the twins and Harry, though he _might_ have had a hand in spreading that rumour.

Yes, that went well.

The only sore point was Harry, who, after being told what the Dark Mark meant, refused to speak with him for three weeks. Then came their next lesson with Snape and he was reminded just why his brother had done distasteful, disrespecting, immoral things and they were good again, if under the condition that Tom cast no more Dark Marks.  
>Damn outsourced conscience.<p>

* * *

><p>Jup, Tom is vindictive. And evil. No, duh! :D<br>This wasn't meant as prank or in any kind funny. Voldemort does not play pranks. It was to frighten Snape to death.  
>Don't mistake me, I like Snape, but he really behaves like a prat and Tom does not do second chances or mercy. Much. Mostly. :D<p>

And thank you so much for your feedback! I was really stunned of how many wrote this time! Thank you all so much!


	19. Evil

**19. Evil**

"Potter?"

"Yes?"

"Your brother is evil," George stated deadpanned.

Harry nodded without looking up.  
>"That he is."<p>

Somehow he could hear the gaping despite it being soundless.  
>"But… But…! He is evil! And malicious!" Ron exclaimed. At that, Harry looked up affronted.<p>

"Hey! He is not!"

Hermione choose that moment to pipe in:  
>"You just said so yourself."<p>

"He is evil. But he is nice, though."

"Nice?"

"Yes, nice!" Harry repeated with a frown.

"He made Susan cry yesterday."  
>"And Padma."<br>"And Hannah."  
>"And the day before he incarnated my potions homework!"<br>"And mine!"  
>"He made me fall down the stairs."<br>"He laughed at my teeth."  
>"He keeps calling my brothers `hell´s spawn´."<p>

"He does?" George preened proudly. Ron looked at him oddly, thought a moment and shrugged.  
>"On second thought, maybe he is right…"<p>

Harry felt compelled to defend his brother.  
>"He IS nice. He just doesn't show it."<p>

The others looked at him unbelievingly.

"Hey! He is kind of… see, it is like he has all the niceness bottled up inside of him…"

"Tom?" Harry asked at their next quality brother time, was it was marked in his timetable. Ron found it ridiculous, Hermione very telling about Tom's mental state, but Harry actually relished the few times he met his brother apart from lessons and their house members´ rivalry. Besides, he could check up on the tender moral flower he tried to grow in Tom´s head, which in the moment was withering badly.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Why did you make the girls cry?"

"Which ones?" Tom asked disinterestedly.

"Tom!" Harry cried out in indignation. Then he sighed and said, "Padma and Hannah and Susan."

Tom looked at him questioning. Harry rolled his eyes.  
>"The Indian girl, the bond one with the pigtailes and the red head Hufflepuff."<p>

"Ah," he thought a moment, "because it was fun?"

Harry sighed and rubbed his nose. He had sworn to himself to make a good person out of Tom, he had!  
>"Tom. We talked about that. Making girls cry gives you a bad reputation and is not nice!"<p>

"Well, I am not nice" Tom replied unfazed.

Harry opened his mouth to explain the whole concept of niceness and its merits – _again_ – but decided he had not enough time today. He had charms in two hours.  
>"We´ll talk about that. Until then, no more making girls cry, OK?"<p>

"Yeah," his brother merely rolled his eyes. When Harry´s frown deepened, he relented gruntingly. "Fine, I promise."

Harry was happy enough with that.  
>"By the way, why do you run around and incarnate Potions homework?"<p>

Tom looked at him deadpanned. "I´m forestalling Snape."

"Well. Can't find a fault with that one, I guess…"

His brother grinned in his unique mix of smugness and superiority. Harry rolled his eyes and decided to skip the telling-of-your-week part in favour of the really important thing. After all, talking they could do in front of their peers. He looked up his brother with puppy dog eyes, hiding a grin as Tom squirmed uncomfortable, but finally hugged him stiffly. Only then he smiled broadly. There was nothing like some quality cuddle time.

* * *

><p>Long time no see, I know, sorry. I'm in quite over my head with my studies, BA thesis and internships and abroad study year all coming close. But I hope to keep up writing when I've settled in with my new work.<p>

Thank you all for keeping reading this und of course for your motivating reviews!


	20. Brooms for sweeping

**20. Brooms for sweeping and sky for the winged**

Time went by. Tom was surprised how fast the days ended and soon he found himself standing on the Quidditch pitch in the late autumn air, glaring disdainfully at his broom. He did not need it for flying, damn it! Okay, so maybe he did need it, for the moment at least. And probably for the next twenty or so years. But flying was overrated anyway. Who wanted to chase a bloody ball if you could work on world domination instead?

A look around had Tom sighing. Obviously ninety percent or his yearmates did. On the other hand, he mused while watching Goyle stuffing his face with beans, it shouldn't surprise him. Malfoy was bragging about his fantastic skills and shining career as a Quidditch professional that was clearly waiting for him. Tom refrained from making a snide comment. For once he preferred to be overlooked by his housemates.  
>Honestly. Who in their right mind made eleven years olds ride on flying broomsticks? The sexual innuendos aside, it was highly dangerous and…<p>

Tom blanched.

Hadn't his foolish little brother been on the team the last future?

Harry gripped the broomstick nervously. The thing had jumped into his hand. That was good, wasn't it? He glanced to his brother, who was scowling at the broom in his hand. The others might have overlooked it, but Harry had seen the short time between the command and the movement of the broom. That and he knew Tom could move things without his wand. It was one of the things he wasn't supposed to tell anyone, though, so he kept quiet.

Why was his brother in such a bad mood? He had been since they got the massage of their flying lessons. Was flying bad? Ron had told him all about Quidditch and it sounded like a lot of fun to have.  
>Deep in thought he nearly missed Madam Hooch´s whistle. He hurried to push himself of the ground and – he flew!<p>

With an exhilarated laughter he soared into the sky. Cool air rushed over his face and bit into his skin. It did not matter. He was born to be up here!

Tom scowled up to his brother, who swished through the air like a maniac and chased sidekick one. _He_ was the maniac, damn it! Which idiot had invented the tradition of flying on brooms of all things, anyway? Wouldn't a squishy chair be completely sufficient? But no…!  
>A gush of wind (okay, so maybe it was more like a breeze, but who cared) caught his robes and made him drift higher. Tom risked a glance to the ground and immediately regretted it. He was not afraid of highs! He wasn't! It was just that he could not fly by himself – yet – and sat on a bloody broomstick that was shaking in the wind like a leaf and …<p>

The broom cracked suspiciously. Toms eyes widened and he gripped the handle for dear life. It was made from wood. Wood cracked every now and then. Completely normal, right? Everything was fine. He took a deep breath, vaguely hearing voices in the background and loosened his grip. Just a little, mind you.

The next moment, he found himself falling. And falling. And… maybe he should cast a cushioning cha…

Everything was blurry. Tom groaned and blinked. Yellow eyes were staring back at him.  
>"I think he is conscious", yellow-eyes said. Tom looked a bit higher and saw spiky grew hair. Oh, so it was Madam Hootch. Great. With a white ceiling above her. Great! He was in the hospital wing. His teacher and Madam Pomfrey discussed something in low voices, before the former nodded at him and turned to leave.<p>

He was sure that he heard her murmur under her breath, though.

"_Adopted, definitely."_

Tom was obviously not well, Harry observed concerned, when he visited him an hour later and presented him his wand, which Malfoy, the bastard, had tried to steal, and his new membership in the Griffindor Quidditch team. In fact Harry called for Madam Pomfrew, when Tom whimpered in a very un-Tomish way and hid his face behind his hands.

His poor brother.

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><p>It has been a while, I know. I have a lot of work at the moment.<p>

Thank you all for your Reviews!


	21. Halloween

21. Halloween

There were days you woke up and knew instinctively you should hide in your bed.

Tom knew those days well.

There were days you woke up happily, remembered what was scheduled and then wanted to hide in your bed.

Tom knew those days, too.

Finally, there were days in the year that _always_ went wrong, usually marked with a bloody skull on the calendar.

Tom knew those days too well. Luckily, his roommates thought the bloody skull was a contribution to Halloween.

Of all the days in the year, the 31th of October was the worst. He hated the date. He abhorred it. Halloween was like a concentrate of a week's worth detention with Snape while Looby brewed potions next to him and Dumbledore twinkling at him with disappointed, suspicious eyes, while knowing that Bellatrix would try to get you fuck her later.

"Why are you so grumpy? It´s Halloween!" Harry asked him cheerfully but with a hint concern.

Tom grunted something unintelligible.

"Mr Potter, please pay attention!" Minerva reprimanded him for the tenth time. Tom nodded absently and doodled another exploding cauldron on his notes. The last time he had been in school he drew the design of the Dark Mark, but that would be kind of suspicious. Just a little bit.

If he only knew which one here was after the philosopher´s stone, he would have gotten rid of that problem. The protections were laughable, first years could overtake them, literally, as long as Dumbledore was out of the way. It could be everyone. Somehow, despite doing the classwork practically in sleep, he had forgotten the task of finding out what was happening. He forgot. _He_! He never forgot anything! Never!

Only now he had. And he had the gloomy feeling it would come back and bite his ass. He silently decided that he would get the damn stone if only to ensure that nobody else could cause him problems with it or endanger Harry. He did not see a reason why this should happen (his Death Eaters knew that he had the dibs on killing Harry) but then again, nobody if not he knew what a trouble magnet his little brother was.  
>Better to bring all mysterious, megalomaniac attracting artefacts out of reach.<p>

Plus, on the upside, it wasn't as if he couldn't think of a use for the philosopher´s stone.

First though, unfortunately, he had to live through Halloween. To be more precise, he had to make sure that Harry lived through Halloween. Not for the first time he wished he had a pensive. Something rather important had happened the first time around, only that that was about seventeen years ago from his point of view. Between then and now Harry had caused him so many near-heart-attacks for either not dying when he was supposed to and him consequently throwing a hissy fit or lately for nearly dying and… well, he still threw a hissy fit, but for other reasons. The point was that all the adrenaline had obviously affected his memory.

On one hand he knew that whatever had happened was probably caused due to him possessing Quirrell. On the other hand he had a really, really queasy feeling that just would not go away.

The feast was… nice. Tom had nearly forgotten how nice Halloween in Hogwarts could be, if you weren't busy creating havoc in order to obtain world domination. The decoration was for once tasteful. He made a mental note to congratulate Flitwick to his pumpkins. At least three of his classmates had nearly soiled themselves already.  
>Harry was practically bouncing on his place, while he chattered excitedly with his two sidekicks. That only affirmed Tom´s theory that some people were just meant to be together, no matter which upbringing. Though he had only known Potter from the teacher´s perspective and maybe a little bit biased at the time, he was sure his brother was different from the one back then. Still, the three of them were friends.<p>

He continued watching the Gryffindors deep in thought, while ignoring blondie´s snide comments about the feast. Spoilt, degenerated brat he was. Tom had had spent quite some time figuring out what to do with the Slytherins. He had to admit he had rather liked the attention he got the first time around. On the other hand he could feel Dumbledore´s eyes on him every so often and Snape, too, seemed to watch him. Additionally he had still troubles with pretending to be a child, probably because he never had a childhood. While living at the Dursleys´ was admittedly a lot better than growing up in an orphanage during the Second World War, he slipped into a father/brother role for Harry instead of being a child himself.  
>So he was wary of antagonizing his classmates and outing himself as too mature. Instead he mostly kept for himself, that is, as long as Harry allowed him to. What was it with the Gryffindors and all the hugging? The Lord Voldemort part of his personality rolled in his grave.<p>

As if on cue sidekick two embraced a very flustered (though more the girls have cooties flustered, not the girls have breasts flustered) sidekick one. Then, for good measure, she hugged Harry, too. Tom couldn't help himself but let his eyes wander over his house. Rigid backs, carefully chosen words, calculating looks. For the most part, at any rate, since Malfoy was sprouting rubbish as usual and his clique of sycophants was fawning over him. But still, who had made the rule that the ambitious weren't allowed to hug each other?

Not that he wanted to be coddled! Not at all!

He scanned the teachers´ table and found no one missing. Snape was seated between Trelawney and Quirell. Tom almost felt pity. Almost. The git was still unbearable, but Harry had forbidden him any other retribution, though lately he got contemplating looks from his little brother. No, Snape wasn't doing himself a favour.

So far everything seemed to be playing out well. Maybe he had worried for naught…

As fate played it games, just then a deafening noise echoed through the hall. As one teachers and students jumped, wands ready. Frightened screams priced the air, as pupils jumped up to see what was going on. Tom tried to see his brother in the chaos, but to no avail. A roar and another blow only fuelled the panic.  
>In return Tom remembered the event. Mountain troll. Right. Thank you very much, brain, for supplying the information <em>now<em>. Growling he pushed and occasionally hexed his way through the pupils. The teacher could deal with the troll, but he had to make sure his idiot brother was out of danger.

Fuck his luck that on Halloween a bloody mountain troll had found its way to the castle. He vaguely remembered letting the thing in as a distraction. Bloody hell! How could he forget a twelve something feet high stinking monster? Admittedly there had been bigger ones in his life, but still…

The doors of the Great Hal banged open. Simultaneously, a thunder of spells deafened Tom´s ears, while everyone with a wand (who were quite many, considering the place) started firing into the vague direction of the doors. The explosion shook the castle walls, which miffed Tom quite a bit. After all, the only one to manage that had been him, so far. Or in the future.  
>His mood was fell further, when he just caught himself before summoning an umbrella (which was by any means <span>not<span> a first year spell) as bits and pieces of mountain troll rained down on the horrified pupils. Not that he hadn't been covered in more disgusting stuff over the years – with a shudder Tom remembered the ingredients of his rebirth ritual, what the hell had compelled him to use Wormtails flesh, of all his useless minions? – but the last eleven years had been pleasantly bloodless. Pleasantly, at least, concerning the laundry.

He shook his head and whipped of a particularly big troll piece, before looking for his brother. It was considerably easier, now that right and left children fainted. Harry, he noted enviously, had a lot more luck with his position. Apart from a few blood streaks on his shirt he looked relatively neat, though his expression was oddly pensive. In fact, he stood perfectly still within the chaos.

"Tom?" he said very calm, when said one approached.

Tom froze in his tracks. Shouldn't Harry be kind of upset? Or anyhow else hyper?  
>"Yes?" he asked carefully.<p>

Harry´s odd expression turned into a deep frown.  
>"You know, I just realized, that normally children don't get warned about fighting trolls. And I just remembered you doing that at least five times in the last years."<p>

Tom´s eyes went wide. As did Snape´s, who fluttered through the students in an attempt to create order.

_"What?"_

Oops…

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><p>Its been a while, I know. Thank you all for the Reviews! Even though I am very lazy here I enjoy reading them! I'll try to work on the story again, but unfortunately no promises.<p> 


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